Online shopping has become a way of life — even for the Catholic Church.
In preparation for Ash Wednesday, a rising number of religious leaders are forgoing the tradition of burning palms and instead buying ashes on the web.
“Actually, the manufactured ones stick better and are darker,” said Joan Duncan, director of faith formation at St. Barbara Roman Catholic Church in Penn Township. “The ones you burn on your own are very fine and don’t adhere as well.
“I have done palm-burning services with children, and it’s a wonderful way to teach families the connection. But when you see people walking around with dark ashes on their forehead, you can probably guess those ones were purchased.”
Dozens of religious supply companies sell pure palm ashes online. They can even be found on Amazon. Depending on how many people are expected, churches can pay as little as $6 to buy enough ashes for 100 people or as much as $38 to serve 2,000.
Ash Wednesday is a holy day of prayer, fasting and almsgiving that marks the start of the six weeks of penitence before Easter, known as Lent. For many Christians, its start is noted by receiving cross-shaped ashes on their forehead.
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Whether a result of pandemic shutdowns or a matter of convenience, many churches are buying ashes from religious-goods suppliers online, which get their stock from palm suppliers in warmer states, such as Florida and Georgia.
Father Alan Polczynski, pastor of Christ the King parish in Leechburg, said it used to be tradition that parishioners would keep their palms in a prominent place at home and then bring them back to be burned the following year.
Many Catholic churches pass out palms on Palm Sunday each Easter season. Those palms typically are kept for a year then burned in preparation for Ash Wednesday.
“The general rule is that, with anything blessed, you have to burn it or bury it to dispose of it,” he said.
“Usually, there would be a large fire the week before Easter.”
There’s an art to getting the ashes just right, though.
According to the National Altar Guild Association, ashes must cool and be sifted to discard large or scratchy pieces. To create a darker color, they can be mixed with holy water or oil. Sometimes, the burnt palm is so fine it won’t stick to the skin.
The Rev. Eric Dinga of St. Lawrence Parish in Cadogan said he enjoys the tradition of burning palms but appreciates the heartiness of the packaged ashes.
“We have a service every year where we open it to the public and burn the palms,” he said. “It brings the church year full circle. But to get them fine enough to use, you need some special tools. If you take a little of those ashes and mix them with what is purchased, that works great.”
The Rev. Andrew Fischer, senior parochial vicar at Harrison-based Guardian Angels, said the parish distributes ashes to hundreds of people during five Masses at two churches.
For that reason, he has burned palms in the past to replenish the parish stock. He also enlists students from St. Joseph High School in Harrison to help him distribute ashes as a way to engage younger people in learning about the tradition.
Whether burned or purchased, he said, the ashes come from last year’s palms.
“Ashes are a sign of repentance,” he said, “and we want to start Lent off by receiving the word of God.”
For ease and convenience, the Rev. Felicia Brock buys the ashes that First Baptist Church of Tarentum uses. It gives her more time to devote to daily tasks, such as organizing the youth ministry, laundry closets and doughnut Sundays.
Brock instituted the church’s Ash Wednesday distribution when she arrived in 2019. It has grown so much that she opens the doors at 6 a.m. for people on their way to work and doles out the last ashes at 8 p.m.
“It’s very important spiritually,” Brock said. “It’s important for any Jesus-believing faith system because it causes you to focus on the Lenten season.”
For Brock and other ministers across the region, Lent is the high point of the year — she likens it to the Super Bowl.
“There’s lots of preparation and then reflection of how we need to look at ourselves in the mirror,” Brock said. “Not so that we can be down on ourselves, but so we can recognize the necessity of being forgiven.”